Is Anybody Home?

About

At some point in our life, we all get lost. Lost in words, lost in thoughts, lost in feelings, lost in memories, lost in places.  At some point, sooner or later, we have all experienced the deep will ofjust going home. Going home and nothing else, as rejoining a familiar environment would act as a magic healing balm for our soul's wounds. But what if, once we finally arrive, we found an empty place instead? How can we deal with the void of our absence in familiar rooms filled with others' actions, presence, life? What is home, anyway?

“Is anybody home?”, a shout at first, a whisper at last, becomes then the materialisation of our need to reach anyone who'd be there, listening. Is anybody home? resonating in an empty house means to go back...and still feeling lost.

The exhibition Is Anybody Home? Aims to address the question of belonging and identity; physical separation and devised affiliation create also new ways to intend “home” in a larger sense. What kind of roots can we have, in a world that is both extremely interconnected and fragmented, in which to migrate and to be eradicated are not only necessities for many, but rather they become a new global standard?

The three artists presented here deal with the idea of distance, home and identity. Nina Haab works with photography, video and installation; in her practice, she collects factual traces and spoken memories of strangers that she then re-elaborates, adding to the final result her own
universe of references. The narration between facts and fantasy is then mixed up, opening to new interpretations by the viewer. New narratives and interrogations about identity are also at the core of Jinwoo Yang installations, in which familiar objects and situations are distorted and twisted with a playful and ironic approach. On the other hand, Kuai Shen “audiovisual naturalist and ant lover” as he said himself, creates ecosystems welcoming ant colonies; fascinated by these incredible little creatures, Shen films them and records them, mixing together technology and art while interrogating the viewers about the society they live in and their thought of humanity.

Is Anybody Home? talks about consciousness of the self and memory, nationality and migration, environment and social structures: all these are different aspects that act together in order to build one's identity and feeling of belonging.